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West Berkeley Shellmound site sacred, project opponents say

Native Americans from the Bay Area and afar and their non-Indian allies have intensified their push to derail a proposed mixed-use development on the Spenger’s Fish Grotto parking lot, part of the city-landmarked West Berkeley Shellmound site.

BERKELEY — Native Americans from the Bay Area and afar and their non-Indian allies last week intensified their opposition to a proposed mixed-use development at the West Berkeley Shellmound site.

“We have an opportunity as people of Berkeley and citizens of the world to do something different, to do what’s morally correct,” Corrina Gould, an Ohlone who is co-founder of Indian People for Change, told the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Jan. 5. She and others want the city to reject a developer’s plan to build 155 apartments, about 30,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, and a six-level parking garage at 1900 Fourth St., now a parking lot for Spenger’s Fish Grotto.

The commission was continuing its review of the project’s draft Environmental Impact Report for the project, to be followed by a continuing review of the document by the Zoning Adjustments Board on Jan. 12.

The 2.2-acre project site, bounded by Fourth Street, University Avenue, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Hearst Avenue, is part of the city-landmarked West Berkeley Shellmound site. Over the years, starting in the late 19th Century, pre-European contact human remains have been found near today’s parking lot, most recently the remains of five individuals found last year at another project across the street, at 1919 Fourth St.

The 1900 Fourth Street developer team has said that testing at their site has yielded no evidence that cultural resources exist there, but opponents are unconvinced.

Mark Rhoades of Rhoades Planning Group, which represents project applicant West Berkeley Investors LLC, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Gould and other activists say the site also is sacred as a place where Native Americans historically have prayed. Gould had called for an interfaith prayer vigil at the site for Jan. 8, but because of the inclement weather over the past weekend, rescheduled it for Jan. 22 at 1 p.m.

But Red Dog Rudy, who said he is Ute and Chicano, came out anyway on Jan. 8, performing a song of hope and prayer under the University Avenue overpass before a small group of onlookers.

“We’re on stolen land,” Rudy said, “and we have an obligation to teach the true history of all Americans. If we are to heal, we must all come together for a solution.”

Asked what a solution might be, Rudy said, “I will leave that to the Ohlone people. They know best.”

Andrew Galvan, a Chochenyo Ohlone and president of the nonprofit Ohlone Indian Tribe Inc., has said he takes a dim view of Indians from outside the area advising what should be done with cultural resources locally, drawing an analogy to Scandinavians coming to Italy to tell Italians what to do with their cultural assets.

Galvan also has been a consultant to the 1900 Fourth Street developer team. And across the street, at 1919, Galvan has the role of “Most Likely Descendant,” from among a list of tribal consultants, maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission, to be contacted by county coroners when Native American human remains are found.

Galvan did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment for this article. But in an interview in November, Galvan said that when remains are found, the preferred option is to rebury them onsite, and if that is not possible, then the alternative would be reburial at the Ohlone cemetery in Fremont, which is owned by Ohlone Indian Tribe Inc.

The Ohlone Indian Cemetery, whose sign is seen on Dec. 25, 2016, is in Fremont, Calif.

Asked about the disposition of the remains of the five individuals found at 1919 Fourth St. last year, Galvan declined to reveal the reburial site. But he said he would not accept the type of situation that he sees occurring at the Emeryville Shellmound memorial at the Bay Street Shopping Center, site of an annual protest.

“I’m trying to protect my ancestors from what I perceive as a desecration by the clowning around on Black Friday, on top of them,” Galvan said. “My goal in re-interment location is to prevent desecration of the dead even in the future.”

He added that, “Black Friday at Emeryville doesn’t look like a prayer service. Shouting into a microphone, shouting at buildings — that’s not prayer to me.”

With lower home prices, more Californians could afford a home purchase in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, but the California Association of Realtors reports higher interest rates lowered affordability from the previous year for most counties.